"The First Step in God Realisation"

Skandham-2

Chapter-1.

The First Step in God Realization:-

Slokam- 1 to 39.

(-) My obeisances unto the Supreme Lord Vâsudeva. (1) S'rî S'uka said: ' The question you asked is a glorious one, as being beneficial to all man, o King, It carries the approval of the transcendentalists and constitutes the Supreme for everybody in all kinds of hearing. (2) There are countless of subject matters to hear about in human society, o Emperor, that are the interest of those materially engrossed who are blind to the reality of the soul. (3) Wasting their nights sleeping or indulging in sex they either spend their lives during the day with making money, or with maintaining their family, o King. (4) In spite of experiencing the destructivity of the fallible soldiers of the body, the children, the wife and everything thereto, they, being too attached, do not see. (5) For this reason, o descendant of Bharata, must the Supersoul, the Supreme Personality who is the controller and vanquishing Lord, be heard of, be glorified and also be remembered as He frees the ones in desire from anxiety. (6) All this analyzing in the knowledge of yoga of one's particular nature and on how a person from his birth should attain to the full awareness of the Supreme, in the end only concerns the remembrance of Nârâyana [Krishna as the Supreme Personality]. (7) Predominantly those sages, o King, who through the restrictions are transcendentally situated above the regulative principles, are the ones taking pleasure in distinctly describing the glories of the Lord.

8) This story called the Bhâgavatam containing the essence of the Vedas, was by me, at the end of this Dvâpara Yuga [the age of honoring monarchs] studied with my father Dvaipâyana Vyâsa. (9) In spite of being fully realized in transcendence my attention was drawn towards the enlightened verses on the pastimes, o saintly King, of which I studied the content. (10) Those I will recite to you, as you from your good self are a most sincere devotee - they who give full respect and attention very soon will find an unflinching faith in Mukunda [Krishna as the Lord granting liberation]. (11) Of those free from material desires, of those who are desirous ànd of all who free from fear and doubts are united within [the yogis], o King, is it to the decided truth of the Lord His holy name that one is ['always'] singing in succession. (12) What is there better, to the bewildered in the inexperienced of their many years in this world, than a moment of consciously trying for the matter of the supreme interest? (13) The saintly king known as Khatvânga, knowing that the duration of life in this world is but a moment, set aside everything and experienced the full safety of the Lord. (14) O, member of the Kuru-family, therefore also your life's duration limited to seven days should inspire you to perform everything that traditionally belongs to the rituals for a next life. (15) Seeing the end of one's life one should be free from the fear of death in cutting, by means of the weapon of non-attachment, with all desires, as well as with everybody associated with them. (16) Piously self-controlled having left one's home for a sacred place, one should, properly cleansed and purified, seat oneself poised, in solitude according the regulations. (17) The mind should be set to the practice of the three transcendental letters [A-U-M], and thus one attains, without forgetting the seed of the absolute [Brahman, the impersonal spirit], to the control of the supreme by regulating the breath. (18) For the sake of the virtue, being fixed in meditation, withdraw the mind from the senses their engagement, for, being absorbed in fruitive labor, the intelligence tends to be driven by the mind. (19) Concentrating, without losing sight of the complete, the mind thereafter on the different parts and divisions [of the body as also of the logic], one should consequently not think of anything but the feet of that Supreme Vishnu, the reconciler of the mind. (20) By the passion and inertia of nature the mind is always agitated and bewildered, but one will find that rectified in the concentration of the pacified that destroys all the wrong done. (21) Being fixed in the habit of such systematic remembrance the mystics holding on to this devotion will soon attain to success in the shelter of the yoga that sees this as all-good.

(22) The king, attentive to what was said, asked: 'O brahmin, what is in short the idea of where and how a person must engage in or hold on to, to escape without delay from a polluted mind?'

(23) S'rî S'uka said: 'From the controlled sitting and breathing, one's association to the senses about the gross matter of the Supreme Lord His features, must engage the thinking intelligently. (24) His individual body is this gross material world wherein we experience all past, the present and future of this universe its existence. (25) This outer shell of the universe known as a body with seven coverings [fire, water, earth, sky, ego, noumenon and phenomenon, see also kos'as], is the conception of the object of the Universal Form of the purusha as the Supreme Lord. (26) The lower worlds are recognized by the ones who studied it as the soles of His feet [called Pâtâla] to which His heels and toes are called Rasâtala, His ankles Mahâtala while the shanks of the gigantic person are called the Talâtala worlds. (27) The two knees of the Universal Form are called Sutala, the thighs Vitala and Atala and the hips are named Mahîtala, o King, while outer space is taken to be the depression of His navel. (28) The higher illumined worlds are of His chest, with above it the neck called Mahar, His mouth called Jana while Tapas is the name of the worlds of the forehead with Satyaloka [the world of Truth] as the uppermost of the [middle] worlds of the Original Personality who has a thousand heads. (29) The gods headed by Indra are His arms, the four directions are His ears and sound is His sense of hearing. The nostrils of the Supreme are the As'vinî-kumâras [a type of demigods], while fragrance is His sense of smell and His mouth the blazing fire. (30) The sphere of outer space are the pits of His eyes, while the eyeball of the sun is making up His seeing. The eyelids of Vishnu are the day and night, the movements of His eyebrows are the supreme entity [Brahmâ and other demigods], His palate is the director of water [Varuna] and His tongue is verily the nectarine juice. (31) They say that the vedic hymns are the thought process of the Unlimited One, that His jaws make up Yamarâja [the Lord of death], His teeth are His affection and that His smile is the most alluring unsurpassable material energy [mâyâ]; the material creation is but the casting of His glance. (32) Modesty is His upper lip, His chin for sure the hankering, religion is His breast, and the way of irreligion His back. Brahmâ is His genitals, His testicles are the Mitrâ-varunas [the friends], His waist the oceans and the stack of His bones are the mountains. (33) His veins are the rivers and the plants and trees are the hairs on the body of the Universal Form, o King. The air is His omnipotent breathing, the passing ages are His movement and the reactions of the modes of material nature are His activities. (34) Let me tell you that the hairs on the head of the Supreme Controller are the clouds, o best of the Kurus, and that the intelligence of the Almighty is the prime cause of the material creation, so one says. His mind, the reservoir of all changes, is known as the moon. (35) The material principle constitutes His consciousness, so one says, while Lord S'iva is the cause within (His ego, His self). The horse, mule, camel and elephant are His nails, and all other game and quadrupeds are represented in the region of His belt. (36) The singing of the birds is His artistic sense and Manu, the father of man forms the contents of His thought with humanity as His residence. The angelic and celestial beings [the Gandharvas, Vidyâdharas and Caranas] constitute His musical rhythm while the remembrance of terrorizing soldiers represents His prowess. (37) With the intellectuals [brahmins] for the face and the rulers [kshatriyas] for the grip of the Universal Form, are the traders [vais'yas] the thighs and the laborers [s'ûdras, the dark or 'Krishna'-class] those who are protected by His feet. Through the various names of the demigods He overtakes with the provision of feasible goods [that appease Him] through the performance of sacrifices.

(38) I explained all these locations in the Form of the Supreme Lord to you so that anyone who may concentrate the mind on this virâth-rûpa Universal Form can attain through intelligence, as beyond Him as such there is nothing else to be found in the gross of matter. (39) He who from all realization knows everyone as the Supersoul as much as a dreamer sees it, is the one and only Supreme Truth and ocean of bliss. Towards Him one should never worship anything else or else see oneself degraded by attachments.'

The order carriers of Lord Vishnu, who are worshiped even by the demigods, possess wonderful bodily features exactly like those of Vishnu and are very rarely seen. The Vishnudutas protect the devotees of the Lord from the hands of enemies, from envious persons and even from my jurisdiction, as well as from natural disturbances.